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FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

The Financial Statement read to the House on Wednesday evening by Mi* Mitchelson, on behalf of the Colonial Treasurer, is an exceedingly yuluminous document, bristling with fact!,? figures, calculations, and deductions— the first three questions, viz., the facts, figures, and calculations being doubtless correct, while Jbhe the deductions therefrom, are in some cases clearly open to challenge. Already good ground has been shown in thQ debate qn the. Address-in-Reply. j for challenging these, founded upon the figures relating to, the land transactions of the year, the obvious fact that £he,' alleged extension of §e^tl§ineift isnpt visible, b'eing^n u'^ansjve.fa^ie reply. In oth.er direption's t^an thjis thp conclusion of Sir H. Atkiiisqn' can ije tF^yepse^ T^h equal supcess, but, nevertheless, we willingly admit 1 that, as a State document, the speech is a very valuable one and, calculated to be of great advantage, to the colony by showing in a very clear way to riders in the Mother Qountry' the} wonderful respurces and cipo-bilitjes of New Zealand, b,u{; the lattep part qf. fixe Statement should have been ppn : tamed? not in" the Statement itself" but in a supplementary paper,' iWinoiusion in tha Statement proper over-, looking it to such an extent as to weary

and confuse the ordinary reader. The. Budget would have been '*" far more intelligible and acceptable bad it, within a brief compass, set out plainly, and tersely the transactions of the'past year, the present, position, and the proposals for the iuture. As*.to.the latter, it is plain that the so-called surplus really does not exist ,as a surplus,, but that what has been achieved has 1 been financial equilibrium. That, however", on the whole is a very satisfactory position; "but at* preaeni :5 is equally unsatisfactory to find Ministers have no idea of carrying any further the" policy^ of!Tetrenchraewtrwwhich' they insisted upon as necessary when they took office, and which, to give theih their due, they have until lately carried out. And as to the future, it is still more unsatisfactory to find them proposing to continue the primage duty. This was a . special ; tax, imposed temporarily, for a special-purpose, and ought now to be dispeiised/'Vith. [As to the proposals in relation to land purchase, we suspend anl, opinion until, thbse are stated in detail. Broadly,' the Budget means that the Government have decided on a , policy: of laissez faire —<>f leaving things alone— taking -for their watchword the " »s you were " of the drill-sergeant. Will the country be satisfied with this? We think not.

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